Nobel Committee Shuts Down Bitcoin Award Rumor

They will not award a Nobel to a nominee without a verified identity.

Since UCLA Professor of Finance Bhagwan Chowdhry suggested nominating supposed Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto for the 2016 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, a lot of questions have come up. Namely, whether the Nobel Committee could award the prize to someone who might not even exist.

It looks like the answer is no.

“The prize, as in this instance, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is never awarded anonymously nor posthumously.”

That’s Nobel press officer The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Reuterskiöld responding to our question about whether he could be nominated for the prize in economics.

There you have it. Possibly Nakamoto could go public with his or her real identity, but thus far the cryptocurrency innovator has been comfortable as the Banksy of the economic system.